800 Acres Of Mumbai’s Aarey Land Declared Forest

Maharashtra Chief Minister on Sunday announced that 800 acres of land in the Aarey Milk Colony in Mumbai would be declared as a reserve forest and Aarey metro car shed project would be scrapped. The proposed car shed in Aarey had led to a bitter row in September and October last year between environmental activists and the then BJP-ruled Maharashtra government, which wanted to cut down 2,700 trees to build the shed.

“Biodiversity in Aarey needs to be to conserved and protected. Nowhere is there an 800-acre jungle in an urban set up. Mumbai has a natural forest cover,” said the CM.

The decision is a revision of the government’s declaration last month, when it had announced that 600 acres of land in the area would be declared a forest.

Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray, who campaigned to save the trees, last month said the protesters had fought for the future of the planet and that the rights of Adivasi communities that call Aarey home would be protected.

Cases last year against citizens and environmentalists who protested against the Aarey project and felling of trees in that area have been withdrawn.